Page:Poems Cook.djvu/324

He hurls me off with floundering pang,
 I am caught on a glittering shrub;
And there I merrily dangle and hang
 O'er the head of the grampus' cub.

The starfish comes with his quenchless light,
 And a cheerful guest is he;
For he shineth by day and he shineth by night
 In the darkest and deepest sea.

I wind in his arms, and on we glide,
 Leagues and leagues afar;
Till we rest again where the dolphins hide,
 In the caverns roof'd with spar.

Gems of all hues for a king to choose,
 With coins and coffers, are round;
The wealth and weight of an Eastern freight
 In the Sea-weed's home are found.

Here are pearls for maiden's curls—
 Here is gold for man;
But the wave is a true and right safe bar,
 And its murmur a dreaded ban.

I revel and rove 'mid jewell'd sheen,
 Till the nautilus travels by;
And off with him I gaily swim,
 To look at the torrid sky.

I rise where the bark is standing still,
 In the face of a full, red sun;
While out of her seams, and over her beams,
 The trickling pitch-drops run.

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